


Probitatis

by pkmntrainer_alex



Series: OTPtober 2020 - Niji x Aspen (OC) [23]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mafia AU, Blood and Injury, Broken Bones, Bruises, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:35:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pkmntrainer_alex/pseuds/pkmntrainer_alex
Summary: Niji knew things would get ugly once Ichiji figured out the extent of Aspen’s involvement with him. He just hadn’t thought Ichiji would lash out...quite so violently. Unwilling to return to either of their homes - out of an overabundance of concern on Aspen’s part, of course - Niji lays across the backseat of her car as she attempts to patch him up.
Relationships: Vinsmoke Niji/Original Female Character(s)
Series: OTPtober 2020 - Niji x Aspen (OC) [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948870
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Probitatis

**Author's Note:**

> **Day 12 [SFW] - Angst/Hurt/Comfort**
> 
> (I know it says 'SFW' but I suppose I made it decidedly NSFW, huh? Ah, well. Such is a mafia AU.)

“I’m fine,” Niji slurred out, waving his arm in front of his face. He was...on his back? That was a damn nice change from having been sitting for so long. Niji could feel an ache in his lower back, but it was nothing compared to the pain in his chest or his head. He could only see out of one eye - the other was refusing to cooperate. Every time he blinked, something dark and hot quickly clouded his vision.

“You’re not fine.” He could hear Aspen, and gone was the spirited snark he loved so much. Her voice was anxious, heavy with worry, but still infinitely preferable to Ichiji’s maddening silence the entire time they’d been together. Gentle fingers touched where Niji knew a large gash had been ripped open across his forehead, and he groaned in pain. “You dip. What were you thinking?”

He had been thinking he could trust Ichiji, for reasons Niji still couldn’t put into words. They’d been working together on an assignment. Take out a few lesser members of a competing family in the area - not the Charlottes, though, or any of Kaido’s men. That was too bold of a move for their father. Once the deed had been done, Ichiji had broached the subject of Aspen Frostbane to him. Father was still pushing for him to court her, but it wasn’t going the way he wanted.

_ “Do you know why that is, Niji?” _

Niji laughed, his vision distorted and his head in agonizing pain. He was lucky he hadn’t gotten himself brutalized further, running his mouth the way he had to Ichiji. There were broken ribs, more than a few, and Ichiji had taken Niji’s own gun and beaten him upside the head with it. What bothered him the most was Ichiji not breathing a word the entire time. No sounds from his brother. Just the crackling of broken bones, the wet sound of blood spraying onto the walls and floor. Flesh ripping, his own groans of pain as the beating forced the air from his lungs again and again. Noises Niji was quite familiar with, from other people. 

Ichiji had not said a word. Not uttered a sound. He’d left Niji in a heap on the floor, not far from the bodies they’d finished with earlier. The warehouse they’d brought them to belonged to the family - and coppers were well compensated to not come calling when they heard noise. Niji, dazed, had watched Ichiji calmly taking off his bloodied gloves, wiping his brother’s blood from his face with a damp cloth before pocketing it and walking out. 

Breathing hurt. Thinking hurt. It was only through sheer luck that Aspen had come looking for him - and Niji couldn’t help but be impressed with his girl that she’d sussed out  _ precisely _ where to look. The added ingenuity in wearing dark clothes that didn’t show blood as she struggled to shove him into the back of the car...a girl after his own heart, as she had been from the start. Perhaps she was cut out for the mob life after all.

Aspen’s fingers were shaking as she tried to unbutton his shirt. Niji could feel the cold air of the car licking at his bare skin as she slowly exposed his chest, pulling his shirt open to lay flat against the seat. “You’re completely black and blue.”

Again, Niji laughed, hoping to diffuse the fear and concern he could hear in Aspen’s voice. “Blue? It’s always been my color.”

“It’s not funny, Niji.” He could feel Aspen shifting on the seat, and noticed her leg beginning to bounce in place. She was stressed - Niji would almost venture to say she was more stressed than he was. “We need to get you...somewhere. We can’t stay here in the middle of the city like this. What if your brother comes looking for you?”

Ichiji wouldn’t come looking. Sanji, maybe. Yonji was also another safe bet. Niji didn’t feel terribly worried, even as beaten and bruised as he was. He was still more useful to the family alive than dead. They wouldn’t try to kill him at this juncture. “Take me back to that overlook,” Niji teased, trying to sit up, bracing himself with a hand on the back of the seat. He could feel every single crack in his ribs as he moved, and it turned his laughs into more groans. “We’ll sit on the hood of the car and I’ll kiss you tonight like I should’ve the first time.”

Aspen didn’t laugh. Niji wished she had. “What did you even say to your brother?”

_ That _ was a genuinely funny question, and Niji paused to mop the blood from his eyes before answering, still laughing. He could see Aspen then, even for how dark it was. Her black overcoat, the purple dress beneath. The worry so etched into her face, from her deep eyes to her mouth, and his blood on her hands. “I told him the truth, little brat.”

“The truth?”

There had been a lot of truth. The ball where Ichiji had mentioned Aspen had disappeared? No, she’d been with Niji, getting better acquainted in a dark hallway. Stolen moments when he could manage it, at her place and his. Where he’d disappeared to on Christmas Eve. Why shouldn’t he have told Ichiji? Hadn’t he always told his twin everything?

But that was too much to explain to Aspen - Aspen, who already knew, who’d been there for every last second. Niji could at least summarize it all for her, in case she’d yet to work it out for herself - the most important truth of all, the one that had finally driven Ichiji to crack Niji across the face with the butt of his own gun, triggering the cascade of violent fury.

Niji reached for her hand and found it easily, feeling the warm blood between her fingers. She gripped him back tightly, looking altogether  _ far _ too worried for what he was going to tell her. It wasn’t the way he’d wanted to tell her this. Hadn’t he tried before, to no avail? Ah, well. 

“Yes, the truth. I told him I love you.”


End file.
